Card Castle
by Megga B
Summary: After the death of her father, Bulma moves out of C.C. and into a mansion that is haunted by the spirit of a long deceased Saiyan Prince. Full summary inside. B&V! AU! R&R please! chapter 2 up!
1. Closure

Ok! Here's the summary I promised you all! It's an A/U set in those infamous three years; after Bulma's father dies she finds that she can't cope with the memories that Capsule Corp. brings back, so she sells the company and moves out. Her new home -a mansion in the middle of a strange forest- is being haunted by the spirit of a certain Saiyan Prince who is aware that an unimaginable horror is about to descend upon the inhabitants of Earth and continue on throughout the universe, destroying as it goes. Can he get Bulma's attention in time to save her race and his own?  
  
Chapter 1: Closure  
  
Drifting slowly down a dark corridor, the young heiress of Capsule Corp. became lost in her thoughts, her hand running absently along the wall. It was nighttime, almost eleven thirty, and Bulma's restless spirit had forced her to unravel herself from her warm covers and take a stroll through the winding hallways of the main Capsule Corp. building. There was a full moon out and light spilled in from random windows and pooled on the floor in small ponds of silver. It was the only light the dark house provided her with.  
  
Her hand collided abruptly with something on the wall that swung back and forth long after she had withdrawn the offensive fingers. Knowing what she'd see, she glanced at it only for a second before continuing down the hallway. Behind her, the swinging picture of her father's smiling face came slowly to a stop.  
  
Turning a sharp corner, Bulma found herself in the lounge, where her father's large leather recliner sat unoccupied amongst other miscellaneous chairs. This particular piece of furniture had never stood out to her until only a few weeks ago. She still expected to come in and see her father comfortable in his chair, occasionally taking swigs from his steaming cup of coffee, a dull sound echoing in the spacious lounge when he straightened the newspaper he held. She could still see him looking up at her and smiling before asking her how she had slept. She would tell him she'd slept great. Then they would both go to the lab together, where both their geniuses were combined to create things that people thought weren't even possible to create.  
  
But she only saw that on very good days.  
  
In her dreams on the other hand, when she couldn't control what her mind made her see, things didn't work out so good. She would walk in as usual and see her father in his huge leather recliner. He would ask her how she had slept as usual and she would answer, but then, right then, everything would change. He would start clutching at his chest as if something was trying to rip itself out of him. She would turn around and grab the phone to call an ambulance but when she turned back to her father, she would scream in horror as his head rolled slowly off his shoulders and towards her. At her feet, it would stop with his pain filled face turned at her, and blood would soak the carpet-  
  
Then she would wake up, drenched in sweat, her eyes filled with unshed tears.  
  
Her father's death had not been gory, but the human mind tended to exaggerate things that bothered someone to the point that it became ridiculously scary. Bulma rid herself of the painful memories with a slight shake of her head before continuing her walk out onto the grounds. It was a depressing sight; all her mother's flowers had died long ago and left behind only a wilted brown shell that Bulma was to lazy to clean up. Or was it because somewhere in her subconscious, she believed that her mother's soul would someday come back to water them?  
  
"Oh, the poor dears," She heard her mother squeal in the back of her mind. "Well this just won't do, will it?"  
  
Bulma watched vacantly as the entire scene changed right before her eyes. The flowers sat up from their slinkyish positions and the disgusting brown color was replaced by a light pink. The sun poked through the clouds overhead and the birds began to sing from the trees, their voices echoing across the grounds. She watched as her mother emerged from the Capsule house, a cute little sun hat on her head, her dainty hand grasping a watering can. She trotted over to the flowers where she began to water them, while humming an old tune Bulma hadn't heard in years.  
  
"There you go! Oh my, you are thirsty little things, aren't you?"  
  
Suddenly, a little girl in grey overalls came bursting from the house, holding something in her tiny hand. Her large blue eyes sparkled in the sunlight and her thick blue hair flew behind her.  
  
"Mommy!" She called. "Mommy! Look what Daddy helped me make!"  
  
Bulma's mother smiled before abandoning her precious flowers to bend down and retrieve what her daughter so enthusiastically waved in the air. "It's wonderful, dear!"  
  
Her daughter beamed. "It's a calculator! It has a graphing system, parentheses, brackets! And it can even play games!"  
  
Bunny giggled, and started pressing random buttons on the homemade calculator. The present Bulma watched with mild interest as her father also emerged from the Capsule house, his white lab coat swishing around his ankles. He had a pleasant smile on his face as he bent down to pick up his babbling daughter. The family of four stood there for a long time until the scene slowly dissolved away. The flowers drooped, the birds were silenced, and the sunshine disappeared completely.  
  
Slowly, very slowly, tears filled Bulma's eyes, until she began to cry with such intensity that it was akin to one vomiting. It was too much! It was all just too much! When she tried to leave the deaths of her parents in the past, she was only haunted by disturbing flashbacks. She crumpled to the grass in an ungraceful heap and continued to cry, her burning face buried in her hands.  
  
She had to get away.  
  
  
  
But to retire at such a young age? Was that even possible? Yes. For the richest woman on earth it was. She could sell Capsule Corp. and live off the funds she received from just that for the rest of her life. C.C. was the largest most expensive company in the world and there would be people killing each other for it, like greedy hyenas for a corpse. Selling it wouldn't be easy by any stretch of the imagination.  
  
Bulma already had her entire adjustment planned out. She would sell C.C., get rid of all her furniture, find a nice little house somewhere quiet, buy all new furniture, and start off fresh. It was the perfect solution. She absolutely refused to be haunted by the memories of her deceased parents.  
  
Two days after she put C.C. on the market, she began to house hunt. Hundreds of real-estate agents littered her doorstep with business cards and newspaper adds every day and Bulma finally got so fed up with it that she hired some police officers to arrest any one who set foot on her property. On the days that she wasn't chasing people out of her yard with a frying pan, she was searching through newspapers and magazines for any houses she might like. Some that she did like, she didn't buy just because the agent who showed her the property was a dick. But every single house she saw just didn't feel right to her, almost like she was waiting for a certain one to just magically come along.  
  
A few weeks later, an electronics company from America, made an offer on C.C. that Bulma couldn't refuse. In a week she had the deal signed and closed and prepared to move into a nice apartment on the east side of town.  
  
  
  
A light breeze from an open window snuck in, disturbing the many newspapers Bulma had pinned under her glass of water. Darks clouds threatened the town below with a violent storm, but at this moment all was quiet.  
  
"The calm before the storm," Bulma whispered to Kitty, who purred lightly, arching her back in a mean looking stretch that reminded Bulma of the black cat Halloween cutouts people tapped to there windows, before pawing at the blanket she lay on a few times and plopping down with a soft sigh.  
  
"I hear ya," Bulma said, yawning and continued to leaf through the ads section she had pulled out from a newspaper. A small bolt of lightning illuminated the candle-lit room for a few seconds and Bulma began to count under her breath.  
  
"One... two... three... four...," The loud crack of thunder that was so expected rumbled through the sky. She grinned in anticipation. "Only four minutes away."  
  
She sighed again before sitting back in the white wicker chair she sat in. She loved storms. The pure intensity and the unrestrained rage of a storm always brightened her mood for some reason.  
  
Picking up her glass of water, she searched through the paper with half closed eyes, as she drank. The wind blew, stronger this time, and Bulma had to dive for her papers, spilling the glass in the process. Cursing her own stupidity, she straightened out the papers best she could, wiping water away as she went. She stopped her proceedings when she spotted a rather yellow looking paper sticking out oddly from the rest. She looked over her shoulder when she suddenly had that strange feeling, the one where the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, but saw no one. Turning back to the paper, she grabbed it out from under the stack and sat back down, ignoring the water that spilled slowly off the side of the table and onto the floor.  
  
In the black and white picture, stood a mansion, its demeanor dark and mysterious thanks to the ancient trees that cast their shadows over it like overprotective parents. Its windows where a unique triangular shape as were its tower roofs. Its surroundings were mostly woods and it had that private closed in feel that Bulma craved so much. But that wasn't what she was staring at it for; she was staring because she couldn't look away. The house was just so intriguing...  
  
Kitty got up from her bed and sauntered over to rub herself against Bulma's legs, her purring loud and fast. When she received no response, she clawed impatiently at her owner, her retractable little needles digging into her flesh. Bulma winced before smiling almost thankfully at Kitty, and bending down to scoop her up. Setting the paper down on the table, she sat heavily back down in her chair, staring at it thoughtfully as she stroked Kitty's head. The cat purred softly, her half closed green eyes staring at some random floating object that only she could see. Bulma glanced out at the quickly darkening sky, before glancing back at the paper seriously considering it. Suddenly she dropped Kitty and grabbed the paper.  
  
Kitty hissed at the unexpected drop, and strode back to her bed where she lay, licking her paws, occasionally looking up to scowl at Bulma.  
  
The blue haired woman sat for a few minutes, her eyes transfixed on the paper before nodding to herself and grabbing her phone that she kept by that chair at all times. Skimming down the information, she found a phone number and began to dial.  
  
She was defiantly interested.  
  
  
  
So what do all you awesome reviewers out there think? Suck ass or kick ass? Suggestions? Criticism? All is welcomed! More will come very soon! I'm very excited about this fic! 


	2. The Tour

WOW! This week has been absolutely hectic! I barely had any time to right so I'm lucky that I got this done. Oh! Yes and to all my wonderful reviewers, thank you all so much for your support. It's good to know that people like something that you spend so much time on. And the award for best review goes to... random drum roll sounds well... all of you I guess! you all left such great reviews that I couldn't pick. Oh well. Enough talk from me, on with the story!

Chapter Two: The Tour

Goggling at the huge gate that sat before her, Bulma pulled the key from her black Corvette's ignition, and stepped out, instantly cursing her decision to wear heels when the thick mud that covered the ground sucked her shoe right from her foot. Swaying on one leg, she bent to grab her coated shoe before hopping on to a nearby rock. Seeing no other alternative, she hopped from rock to convenient rock until their trail ended at the twisting metal of the gate. She scowled at the large rusty padlock that bound a large equally rusty chain encircling the bars. Reaching out, she curiously poked the padlock and jumped in surprise when it disintegrated at her light touch.

"Damn..."

The chain uncurled itself from around the bars like an angry snake and fell to the ground where it lay in a giant heap of braided metal. Slightly shaken, Bulma tapped experimentally at the gate and smiled when it moved. She pushed the doors the rest of the way open before returning to the car where she paused long enough to light a cigarette and replace her shoes. While she took impossibly long drags on one of the cancer sticks she insisted on buying, she observed the surrounding area. It was nothing more than a dark and scary looking forest that held the promise of lurking beasts and over grown weeds. Finishing the cigarette, she threw the butt carelessly out the window before plunging the key into the ignition and continuing down the dirt path.

Behind her, the gate closed with a loud bang that Bulma's ears were deaf to. In the middle of the twisted black metal, the joined doors formed a large capital V.

The path through the woods was almost four miles long and Bulma was becoming quite tired of driving when she finally spotted a clearing up ahead. However, she wasn't ready for what she saw within the clearing. Her eyes wide with amazement, she pulled into the circular driveway that curled around what used to be a very large and beautiful garden and stepped from her car. She deafly replaced her keys in her bag as she stared up the vast structure, her mouth forming a huge O of wonder. The mansion in all its regal glory, roared before her as a mountain might. Its many peaks and towers seemed to touch the sky, giving it the castle look that Bulma had fallen in love with the first time she'd seen it in the add.

She shook her head to clear the ridicules wonder that had stupefied her and took the gigantic stone steps two at a time, her heals clicking loudly with each step. When she arrived on the top step, however, all chance of bravery abandoned her and the monster known as hesitation settled its teeth into the hand that she had positioned over the handle of one of the doors. What would she find in there? Would there be bodies littering the ground, the floor soaked in blood like some bad horror film? Would something jump at her, its only intention being to bite off her head, and drag it back to its master who would praise the beast?

"No." She said to herself. "You're being stupid. There's nothing in there, nothing's going to happen to you."

With those words of encouragement, she shook off the monster and grabbed the handle, pulling at the door until it was all the way open. The doors hinges screamed and groaned, as if it was their own way of welcoming the new comer.

The inside was pitch black.

In a tree somewhere, a crow called, its voice bringing Bulma back to reality. She took a deep breath and stepped inside, pulling out her lighter as she did. Raising the lighter eye level, she flipped up the top and flicked it on, jumping at how load the sound of the flame coming alive was in the huge entrance hall.

She strode further in, her heels stirring up little whirlwinds of dust with each step. Of what she could see, the inside of the mansion was even more spectacular than the outside. A long double stair case rose up to meet the second floor which split off into two hallways that were lined with doors. The floors looked to be made of a wonderful white marble but at the moment a thick layer of dust coated the stone, making it hard to determine the true color. Large cobwebs hung in the dark corners of the room and in between the railing posts on the stairs. It looked like a typical fixer upper.

Lowering herself into a crouch, Bulma ran a curious finger through the dust revealing a shining white marble floor, giving truth to her accusations. When she glanced up to see what kind of condition the rest of the floor was in, she was startled to see footprints imprinted in the dust like weird fossils, coming from the stairs and ending at a door to her left. Fright tightened its merciless grip and Bulma stood and back peddled slightly, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end. She could have sworn to Kami himself that those footprints had not been there when she'd walked in.

A sudden wind blew in from the open door behind her, and Bulma jumped when the tiny flame that was her only light was extinguished leaving her standing in the middle of a black entryway. Fright began cackling as she started to fumble with the switch on the lighter, her heart beating painfully fast.

And in her shaky nervousness, she dropped the lighter.

She began to panic as she bent down, her hands groping blindly for her precious lighter. Her mind began to create horrific images for her eyes to dwell on. Her hands were stirring up the dust which clouded around her face in a big mass almost as if it intended to suffocate her and her ears began to ring with the deafening silence. Finally her hands sought the cool metal of the lighter and she stood up, smiling in relief. Holding it up, she clicked it on and screamed when a face flickered right in front of her eyes for a second and was gone just as fast. Completely frozen in on the spot, Bulma tried to reason with herself.

"It really is beautiful isn't it?"

Releasing a horrified shriek, Bulma whirled around in time to see the realtor look at her strangely.

"Oh Jesus Christ," she panted, her hand held firmly over her heart. "God you scared me!"

The agent shot her another strange look before replying with a quick "Sorry I startled you."

"Oh. It's- it's no problem. I just... overreacted a bit there."

"I see..." she drifted off then strode forward, very business like, with her hand out stretched. "I'm Connie Blake. It's nice to finally meet you in person."

Bulma took the hand. "Bulma Briefs, and yes. The same goes for you."

Connie was a pretty young woman with curly red hair bushing around her shoulders, and piercing blue eyes that hid behind the square framed glasses she wore. She held a clip bored that was stacked with insurance papers, deeds, important stuff.

"Well I'm glad to see that you've already viewed the entrance hall." She laughed and Bulma produced a fake chuckle. "Let's begin the tour of the rest of the mansion, shall we?"

Connie began walking and Bulma turned to follow her but not before taking a timid glance over her shoulder where she was shocked to see that the footprints had disappeared and the dust had settled back into its place.

After a small frame of time, fifteen minutes at the most, Bulma had her mind made up. The mansion would be hers. Stupefied by wonder throughout most of the tour, Bulma's mind only grasped a few things that Connie had said. One of the comments was interesting enough to snap her out of he trance.

"I'm sorry?"

Connie blinked at her. "Um... well, some believe this building to be over a thousand years old."

"Good God. How's it still standing?"

"It seems to be made of a substance foreign to this world. Whoever built it, built it to last." She said as she stared at something on the wall.

"Well whoever that was didn't build it in vain."

This was very true. The corridors and rooms in the mansion were completely untouched by mildew or decay. The only evidence that the house was as old as it was said to be, was the thick layer of dust that coated nearly everything, and the monstrous spiders that scuttled across their path from time to time.

About an hour later, the two women had barley covered over a third of the house and Bulma decided that she would explore the rest of it once she moved in. She had already seen that the essentials including electricity and indoor plumbing, which someone by the name of Bill Losecith had so generously installed when he had lived in the mansion. Sadly he disappeared only a couple of days later so he never really got to enjoy what his efforts had produced. With the events that happened earlier in the entrance hall almost completely forgotten, Bulma had the deal signed and closed in less than a half an hour and she was soon on her way back to the apartment to pack.

It only took her a day or two to pack. Yamcha was being extremely supportive even going as far as skipping his baseball practice to come help her move. The two now sat in Bulma's car as the trailed along behind the moving truck, discussing her decision to leave everything behind.

"Are you sure about this?" Yamcha asked, his voice dripping concern for his girl friend. "You know you could always come stay at my place." The real motive behind his objections was the condition of Bulma's mental stability. Recently, she'd been complaining of minor hallucinations and headaches leaving her open for the diagnosis of depression.

"Thanks, Yamcha, but no. You'll see the logic behind my madness once you lay eyes on this place." Her expression became one of pure dreaminess as her mind retraced her tour through the castle. "It looks almost gothic. The entire outside of it is completely black but it has a crystal look to it ya know? Like the way crystal has it's color but its on the inside, under a layer of clear rock. That's how this looks."

"Sounds Charming"

"No one ever said you had to like it." She said simply.

An uncomfortable silence dragged on until Yamcha broke it abruptly. "Do you want me to stay with you for like a week, just to... make sure that..."

When he didn't continue, she took her eyes off the road for a second to look at him. "Make sure what?"

He cleared his throat self consciously. "Just to make sure that- that you..."

"Yamcha, are you afraid that I'm going to do something to hurt myself?" She looked at him suspiciously when he didn't answer. "You are aren't you? What would make you think that I'd do something like that?"

He sighed wearily. "You've just been so depressed lately and I didn't know what the hell to think when you sold C.C.. Truthfully I thought that you were giving everything away like that because..."

She looked at him, gratitude shining in her cerulean eyes. "If it makes you feel better, I'll let you stay for a week and you can prove to your own satisfaction that I am perfectly fine." In the back seat, Kitty meowed impatiently from inside her carrier. Bulma reached back to stroke her though one of the holes in the molded plastic as Yamcha sat back in his seat, satisfied.

Exactly thirty minutes later, the van entered the circular driveway and Yamcha had his head out the window in his attempts to get a better view of the towers.

"Look at it! It's a damn castle!"

"Isn't it great?" Bulma had stepped from her car and was now enjoying watching all the different comical looks that were flashing across the man's face as he gaped at the mansion. "Just imagine what I could do with it."

"Yeah ..." As he went to brush a hand over the black crystal Bulma suddenly noticed something about the way the windows were shaped.

"Yamcha do you know what this place looks like?"

Yamcha turned to look at her, "Transylvania?"

"No..." she whispered. "It looks like a card castle."

A/N: ooooooooo! Scary! Lol jk, so what do ya think? Please review!


End file.
